Elder Tanner Smith - Ghana Accra Mission

Hey Family, miss you like crazy this 4th of July and can't believe that last year around this time I was saying all of my goodbyes for 2 years. The 1st year I've been in Ghana has truly changed me. I have such a bigger perspective on life seeing how things are in Ghana. The crazy part of all is that I've grown so accustomed to how life here is that I've forgotten how things are like back home! Sometimes I don't think we realize how blessed we really are in living in the US and now more then ever I am grateful to be an American. This week we went to a members house and helped her to fetch water from a well a couple minutes away. They fill the buckets and then put them on their heads and carry them back to their home till their main water jugs are full. I was able to help out the member fetch the water. I was thinking how crazy is it that I'm actually USED to the fact that people have no running water here. I can't tell you the number of times I've helped members fetch water, but I'm just grateful I was born into this family and I was able to have opportunities that others in the world only hear about. I can't wait to get home in 1 year time and see all of you and the new kids as well. I promise that I'll be the fun uncle for all of them!

This week was a miracle in itself. The past 3-4 weeks we've only had around 7 member present lessons and the area hasn't been progressing the way I've hoped it would be. Especially with the new companion I was hoping that the area would be doing better then it has. This week we had a good plan on how we could improve just our member present lesson's and everything kind of fell into place. We received 5 referrals from members and investigators who all seem to be serious about investigating the church, and then we had 7 people come to church! I was amazed and so grateful. On top of that we were able to get 4 baptism dates for a couple of our investigators. Even after church yesterday a recent convert came to us and told us that her son wanted to be baptized so we'll teach and baptize him as well. It's been a complete turnaround! I was smiling all during church just because I was amazed that all the people who said they would come to church, ACTUALLY CAME.

I'll just quickly talk about an investigator we have named Ruth. She is a mother of 2 and her husband is a pastor. She lives next to a recent convert and when I first came she was always so angry and didn't ever pay attention to us or didn't want to talk to us. Recently something just changed in her where she was super happy when we went to visit the area and she would laugh and smile so we asked if it'd be okay if we could sit down and learn with her. The first two lesson's were mostly clearing up false rumors that she's heard about the church and then we taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was telling the story of Joseph Smith and her eyes were just glued to me. When I finished she just sat there and smiled. I could tell the Holy Ghost was with her and she could feel that joy it brings. My companion asked if she would be baptized and she just nodded her head and said yes. It was a awesome moment. She's been having problems with her husband and it really pushed her away from church since he's a pastor and now that she's come to our church she's really been so much happier. It's great to see the joy the gospel brings!